Swiss legend Roger Federer has consistently ripped up the record books during his glittering career but his latest landmark - 300 weeks at number one - is one of his proudest achievements.

The 31-year-old was forced to dig deep to reach his triple century, coming back from the brink of defeat to beat Davis Cup teammate Stanislas Wawrinka on Thursday to make the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters.

For a long time it appeared that Federer, overtaken by younger rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, would never return to the top spot, leaving him agonizingly short of Pete Sampras' record of total weeks at No 1.